Friday, July 17, 2015

Swimming pool chaxi

It's a hot summer in Europe, but there are lots of ways to escape the heat. While the kids enjoyed the swimming pool in the Cretan villa, I prepared my tea in the shade.

I chose a very special high mountain from Alishan, Changshu Hu. It's my winter 2014 Tie Guan Yin. The dry scent is not very powerful or very distinctive. But once it's brewed, it's obviously different than a typical High Mountain Qingxin Oolong.

It combines the freshness, power and finesse of the high mountain with the flavors of Tie Guan Yin. The leaves are particularly big and the light golden color is a sign that it's not too lightly oxidized, despite coming from over 1500 meters elevation.

The villa has some nice porcelain plates, and I was glad to integrate them in my chaxi.

And the little terracotta amphora became my waste water container! This made this Chaxi Greek-Chinese and proved once more that the spirit of Chaxi is very flexible and can be adapted to any place and circumstance. Even by the pool!